Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I just got finished watching tonight's American Idol, and I have to say, that show never ceases to amaze me.

I started watching faithfully in Season 2, although I kept that fact pretty quiet when in conversations~~At the time, it was right up there with admitting you were a Soap Opera Fan!

Right from the beginning, I loved Clay Aiken, and when it came time to the shows where you could vote, I would try to vote at least once for him. I still think he got robbed, but check out his career now--by the way, what ever happened to RUBEN??!?!

Season 3 was the season of Fantasia, the single mom, versus Diana DeGarmo, the high school sweetheart. By the way, did you know that Diana's uncle, Eddie DeGarmo, was one half of DeGarmo & Key, the very successful Christian group of the 80s, who was also the first Christian group to have a video on MTV?

Anyway, along with practically everyone in America, I was stunned when Jennifer Hudson was voted off before some of the lesser talented individuals. But now look at her! Golden Globe winner, and also just announced today, Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress. Way to hang in there, Jennifer! Other favorites of mine that year were George Huff and the redheaded young crooner, John Stevens.

Season 4 it was the battle of Carrie Underwood, Simon Cowell's favorite pretty much from the beginning, and Bo Bice. My favorite that year, was Anthony Federov. Not only was he an amazing singer, but his story of recovering from a tracheotomy was truly a miracle.

Season 5 last year was again filled with some outstanding and some not-so-outstanding singers. One fairly decent singer, Melissa McGhee, caught my attention, because every time I saw her, I could swear it was our own Janet Fraser!!! Take a look below at pictures of both of them, and try to tell me they aren't twins separated at birth...

Janet

Melissa

Another equally spooky set of "twins" from Season 5 could be these two:

Chris Daughtry

Matt Singley

As everyone knows, Taylor Hicks went on to claim the title, and continues to make the South proud with his Soul Patrol.

Now, to this year, Season 6, and the real reason for this post. Tonight was a continuation of the multi-city auditions, and they were in the city of Memphis, home of Elvis & B.B. King. Most of the singers they showed were really, really bad. I mean, do these people have no dignity? And their true character comes out when they don't make it, and they make some choice remark and/or gesture to the camera. Really nice, people!! One guy in particular was extremely tasteless. Apparently his wife had recently left him, and he was a little bitter, to say the least. Instead of taking it in stride, he called her some nasty name, right on national television, which was of course, bleeped. Then Simon congratulated the man for publicly humiliating his soon-to-be ex. What's up with that?

The night was saved, however, by a true gentleman, and a not-bad singer either. His name was Philip, I believe, and he admitted he was a little tired because his wife had awakened him at 4am with a phone call, saying she'd just delivered their 3rd daughter. I was all ready to jump down his throat for not being there for his wife, and then Simon asked him what would mean more to him, being the American Idol or his daughter. He said, "It's no contest. My daughter of course!" As I cheered out loud, Simon, in typical fashion, said, "Wow, that's ridiculous" or some equally appalling comment. And one of the closing scenes showed him with his newborn daughter, and let me tell you, I was tearing up!!

So Simon, I hope this guy makes it, if for no other reason than to show that Family is what counts at the end of the day. Not fame, not fortune, nothing is as important as Family. So with that, I'm going to go and hug mine.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that is so good, it causes you to lose sleep. I watched just such a movie last night, and I wanted to share it with all of you.It's called Paper clips and I highly recommend it! I found it while searching through Amazon's Top 100 DVDs of 2006, and checked it out from the library.

It's based on a true story of a group of middle-school kids at Whitwell Middle School in rural Tennessee, who decide to collect 6 million paper clips to better understand the concept of 6 million Holocaust victims. What they discover is something they never expected. As word spread online and in the media, paper clips poured in from around the world. The movie follows the project from its humble beginning to its end result of 11 million clips enshrined in an authentic German rail car standing in their schoolyard as a permanent memorial.

There are also several excellent bonus interviews with actual Holocaust survivors, and a featurette where some of the students who were involved take a trip to our generation's "Holocaust", Ground Zero, in New York City after 9/11.

The movie is rated "G", and is 84 minutes of film that will stay with you for a very long time. And I wouldn't be surprised if, after watching it, you'll find yourself drawn to visiting Tennessee yourself somehow~~I certainly am!!

Blessings, and here's betting you'll never look at a paper clip the same way again~K~

Friday, January 12, 2007

Fridays Kyra has a standing coffee date, with her grandma, at Starbucks, so pretty much neither rain, snow, sleet or hail will keep us from getting there~~plus it's Starbucks...enough said :)This morning was one of those challenging weather days....As most of you know, our area has been experiencing arctic conditions since Tuesday, including disappointingly little snow, but mostly sub-freezing temperatures which produced lots and lots of ICE.

Anyway, at our house, the cars live in the driveway, not the garage, where they could be warm, dry and ice-free. That is because someone, who shall remain unnamed, believes if cars belonged in the garage, it would be called a Carage, not Garage.

Let the records show the original definition of Garage according to dictionary.com is:

"Our word is a direct borrowing of French garage, which is first recorded in 1802 in the sense "place where one docks." The verb garer, from which garage was derived, originally meant "to put merchandise under shelter," then "to moor a boat," and then "to put a vehicle into a place for safekeeping".

That aside, our car was covered in a thick sheet of ice. In his defense, David tried to scrape it before he left for work, knowing that we were going to coffee, but unfortunately, it was too thick, and he was only able to take the top layer off.

When we came out to the car, it was obvious I was going to have to do some serious scraping. I buckled Kyra in her car seat, started the car, turned the defroster on high, and started scraping.

I've always had this fear that somehow I'll close the doors, with the car running, and they'll lock, with Kyra inside~~This happened recently to my dad, so I know it's possible--Kyra wasn't in the car, but he did lock his keys in the car while it was running.

So to avoid stranding Kyra, I left the doors open while scraping. When I realized that no amount of scraping was going to help, as my scraper is a piece of junk, I gave up, and got back in the car to wait for the defroster to do its thing.

As I sat there, I noticed something I'd never seen before. While I had the doors open, apparently the cold air from outside the car, had made its way inside, and proceeded to FREEZE the moisture on the inside of the windshield too!!! Now, not only did I have ice on the outside, but inside as well!

The good news is everything finally defrosted enough to be able to see out the windshield, and we did make it to coffee :) However, it's very tempting to do some re-arranging in the garage, and it made for a decent blog!

Sunday, January 7, 2007

This morning, as I was on the way to church, I confess: I broke the law.

I was sitting at this particular stoplight, which is notorious for being difficult to trigger from a certain direction, and I was chomping at the bit, because I was also running late.

I waited while everyone else got to go, and my light stayed Red. After the second cycle, when I still hadn't gotten to go, I looked left, looked right, saw that no one was coming, and no one was behind me, and shot through the intersection--My luck, that would have been the time my car chose to stall....

Anyway, half expecting a police car to materialize out of thin air, I pealed into the church parking lot, caught major air on the driveway (which is hard on the underside of the car, by the way), and breathed a sigh of relief.

Imagine having to explain to a police officer the reason I felt it was okay to go, was because I was running late for church! Not the best way to honor God or get ready to worship!!

It turned out I really wasn't that late, and one or two more minutes probably wouldn't have made a difference, but it got me thinking: Is there ever a situation where it's okay to break the law? And what kind of example am I setting for my daughter? Or for others who might be watching?